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Curiosities Respecting Earthqakes: Caraccas

The following is an account of an Earthquake of Caraccas; by M. Palacio Faxar: :- M.

Palacio Faxar :- "The ridge of mountains, which branches out from the Andes near the isthmus of Panama, and which, taking the direction of the eastern coast, crosses part of New Granada and Venezuela, seems to have been the seat of that earth quake, which, on the 26th March, 1812, destroyed many populous towns of the province of Caraccas. It is this branch of the Cordilleras, that forms the Sierra-nevada of Chita, that of Merida de Maracaybo, and the height called La Silla de Caracca; and it is between these three remarkable points that the gold mines of Pamplona, the mineral water of Merida de Maracaybo, and the copper mines of Aroa, are found. Between the picturesque Sierra-nevada of Merida de Maracaybo, and La Silla de Caracca, where spring is perpetual, the earthquake was most strongly felt. "At the south-east of this ridge of mountains, there are plains of an immense extent, covered with different species of grasses, and watered by innumerable torrents, which falling from the mountains, and uniting in different bodies, majestically enter the Orinoco. These plains were likewise convulsed for above 120 leagues in Venezuela: the towns situate immediately at the foot of the Cordilliera, or in the valleys between them, suffered most severely: those seated in the plains did not suffer considerable injury, though violently shaken. For five months a continued drought had parched the earth, no rain having fallen, and in the preceding month of December, a slight shock of an earthquake had been felt at Caraccas. It was on the eve of the Crucifixion, when Catholics assembled together in their churches, to commemorate, with public prayers and processions, the sufferings and merits